Saturday, 25 June 2011

The connection between creatures such as the Loch Ness Monster and the semi-mythical Water Horses of Highland folklore has long been discussed and held to be a continuous theme by various crypto-researchers (myself included).

A new source of such stories has now been made available online and free to the public by the University of Edinburgh in the form of the Carmichael Watson Project. Carmichael Watson wrote the well known work on Highland culture and folklore entitled Carmina Gadelica published in 1900 but this is a mere fraction of his total research which is now available online here.

The problem is most of what I looked at had not been translated from the Gaelic, so in that sense it is still a work in progress. Nevertheless, entering the search term "water-horse" yielded 14 results which gave stories from the isle of Lewis and Harris and no doubt elsewhere but without their translation, I cannot be sure. I have contacted them asking for clarification on future translations.

Tuesday, 21 June 2011

This has already done the rounds today on crypto sites but I like to put it in the blog for the record. Basically it was a long neck sighting at about a mile off. Coloured black, submerged for 30-40s and disappeared after 4-5 minutes. I say submerged as the report does not state that they saw it sink once and for all - can Steve Feltham clarify? Final submergences are important since they tend to discount the usual explanations trotted out for these sightings. A bird will fly off, a boat will just stay there until it disappears from view round a peninsula, etc.

So in this case, the crypto-skeptic response will be "bird". Of course, people mistake birds for Nessie - inexperienced people that is. But these witnesses issue the key phrase:

“We stand here all the time and look out and we see boats and kayaks but it didn’t look like anything we have seen here before.”

In other words, they have experience of watching this same vista many times. They have impressed upon their minds multiple memories of boats, etc at the same distance and they have a sense of proportion as to how big something is at that distance.

Of course, the skeptic may still say "bird". I have a scene that often plays in my mind. I dump the carcasse of a Nessie at the skeptics' feet and say "There's your proof!". To which they reply "Can you prove it came from Loch Ness?".

It was while taking a break on the store’s front decking — looking out to the loch — when Mrs Hargreaves and kitchen worker Graham Baine spotted an unusual figure cutting a strange shape through the water.

“We were standing looking out and saw something that looked bizarre,” said Mrs Hargreaves.

“I said to my husband to come and have a look.

“We stand here all the time and look out and we see boats and kayaks but it didn’t look like anything we have seen here before.”

Despite the unidentified creature being quite a distance from their vantage point, 51-year-old Mrs Hargreaves said it had a long neck which was too long to be that of a seal and it was black in appearance.

“It went under the water and disappeared for probably 30 to 40 seconds and then came back up again,” said Mrs Hargreaves.

“It was around for a good four to five minutes. It was just so strange.”

Keen to stress she is not seeking publicity, Mrs Hargreaves does firmly believe what she saw was the Loch Ness Monster.

“It was so exciting,” she declared.

Since August last year, The Waterfall Cafe and Foyers Stores with post office, opposite the village’s famous Falls of Foyers, has been run by Mr and Mrs Hargreaves.

Nessie hunter Steve Feltham, who lives in a former mobile library turned research centre on Dores beach, said he heard about the possible sighting when he popped into the store last week and believes because it was from residents rather than tourists, it is more credible.

“I’m excited by the fact it was locals who had seen it,” said Mr Feltham.

“It’s quite a distance from the shop to the water and they watch everything that goes on there.

“For them to be impressed then there is a possibility it could have been Nessie.”

What particularly excited Mr Feltham was that it was from the exact same vantage point where Tim Binsdale shot the best footage of the legendary creature back in 1960.

“I’ll put the sightings with the other sightings,” said Mr Feltham. “I will also continue to carry out surface observations.”

The sighting was recorded on Wednesday afternoon between 2.30pm and 3pm